Trump Believes Drug Dealers Are As Bad As Serial Killers And That They Should Be Executed

President Trump has often talked about how drug dealers are as bad as serial killers and should be executed, while frequently citing other countries’ tough stances on drug dealers, Axios reported Sunday.

“He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty,’ ” one source told Axios.

“He often jokes about killing drug dealers,” a senior administration official also told Axios. “He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them.’ ”

The president has also reportedly said that he doesn’t believe more lenient approaches to drug offenders will work and that the government needs to teach children that they will die if they take illicit substances.

He has also reportedly told others that drug dealers are as bad as serial killers and should be subjected to the death penalty.

And while Trump has reportedly advocated for a law similar to the one in Singapore requiring all drug dealers be executed, he has also admitted that it would be nearly impossible to pass such a measure.

White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, who is now in charge of solving the opioid crisis, told Axios that Trump is referring to “the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities,” not low-level drug offenders.

“The president makes a distinction between those that are languishing in prison for low-level drug offenses and the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities, that are responsible for many casualties in a single weekend,” she told Axios.

“There is an appetite among many law enforcement, health professionals and grieving families that we must toughen up our criminal and sentencing statutes to match the new reality of drugs like fentanyl, which are so lethal in such small doses,” she added.

Last month during his State of the Union, Trump said that the U.S. must get “much tougher on drug dealers and pushers.”